Dr Vino's wine blog

wine talk that goes down easy

A remarkable wine story of the past few weeks that has gained lots of media attention is the story of “Banned in ‘Bama.” (click for details)

Interestingly, UCLA law professor, Eugene Volokh, posted about this label and said that it seemed “pretty clearly unconstitutional.” Not that Hahn, the producer of the banned Cycles Gladiator, would want to challenge the decision since they have garnered such a huge amount of media attention: they are making a massive amount of lemonade from these tiny lemons and now is mounting point-of-sales material in other states to try the wine “banned in Bama.”

Which other labels might be in jeopardy of being banned in Bama? Hit the comments with your thoughts.

To get the ball rolling, consider the image to the right that is on bottles of Geheimer Rat, Dr. Basserman-Jordan from the Pfalz (click to enlarge). Not only does the woman have sensuous grapes in her hair, but the screw cap is adorned with some rather sensuous initials.

And while we’re on the topic of judging a wine by its label, be sure to surf over to a site called The Coolist and see their display of 30 cool and clever wine label designs.

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on Monday, August 3rd, 2009 at 8:40 am and is filed under business of wine.
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The IRONy of this is that one of the people on the ABC Board is CEO for Vulcan Corporation called Bubba in Birmingham, where upon a Red Mountain the huge Vulcan Iron cast statue faces the town with a behind showing the biggest cast buttocks in the world.

Another Board member I believe is a professor in religious studies.

There are only three board members for Alabama censorship. The way the statute read they can tell stores to get rid of all kind of things if they want to sell beer.

Some of the Marilyn Monroe-branded wines might toe the line. I can imagine related issues for some of the oddly named wines like Bitch and Fat Bastard.

Of course, we’re talking about Alabama, a state that only officially legalized different-race marriages in 2000. (And I’m saying this as a lifelong Southerner. Often our region gets treated unfairly, but sometimes the stereotypes are true…)

I think a fun test case would be a wine featuring a Renaissance painting of the Virgin Mary nursing baby Jesus. I don’t want to get into religious minutiae here, but generally the issue of the “evil exposed nipple” falls apart in that specific case.

Thanks so much for that list. I was very impressed with a lot of the designs. It makes me wish everything we built in life was given as much thought. Could you imagine the difference in a world built by true designers? Everything from public transport to crosswalks would be turned from simple functionality into a treat for the eyes.

You are born nude. God sends us into the world as he sees fit. So what is the big deal with a nude label. I am 50 years old and I am an artist. The body is a beautiful thing. Why are some American people so worried about it being porn? Don’t we have anything better to be worried about? If it’s a good wine then leave the manufacturer alone. They got their paperwork done and ducks in a row so why make a big deal over one complaint? Are we in America the land of the free or not?